"'Always be wary of people who use quotes.' I don't know who said that."

—Murdoc Niccals

Gorillaz are a virtual alternative rock, alternative hip-hop, and trip-hop band created in 1998 by blur frontman Damon Albarn and Tank Girl co-creator Jamie Hewlett. The band consists of four animated fictional characters, Stuart "2-D" Pot (vocals and keyboard), Murdoc Niccals (bass guitar), Russel Hobbs (percussion), and Noodle (lead guitar). These characters are completely fictional and do not represent any real life musicians involved in this project. Aside from live performances during Escape to Plastic Beach World Tour (and to a lesser extent, Demon Days Live), Gorillaz' 'real life' musicians change for each album (with the exception of creator Damon Albarn) and usually stay behind the scenes while Gorillaz are credited as the real band. The virtual band was created as a commentary on MTV often putting more of an emphasis on the musician than the music itself, having a discrepancy between the visuals and the music. To prove that musical groups could be executed in a more interdependent fashion, they created fictional backstories and put much emphasis on the animation and cartoons.

Gorillaz have released four studio albums so far and these albums include their 2001 debut album "Gorillaz", 2005's ''Demon Days", 2010's "Plastic Beach", and 2011's "The Fall". They have also released two b-side albums, 2002's "G-Sides" and 2007's "D-Sides". When Gorillaz first started, their backstory was presented through various interviews and promotional material, but it was eventually all pieced together in the project's second phase through their 2006 autobiography "Rise of The Ogre".

In 2001, they were recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records and were titled the "Most Successful Virtual Band".

They have their own Awesome Music section in TV Tropes available to view here. They have become the most recognizable trip-hop group, all while being an animated band.

Damon Albarn has confirmed, after much speculation and what was thought to be a falling out with co-creator Jamie Hewlett, that the band is in the process of re-activating for 2016.

Amazing Technicolor Population: Depending on the picture, Murdoc's skin is either sort-of-normal olive tone or very obviously green. The change is explained in Rise of the Ogre as being the result of tanning.

Amusing Injuries: 2D sustains quite a few, although it can also creep into Fridge Horror when you realize that he doesn't recover like the typical cartoon character, and in fact has developed an addiction to painkillers as a result.

Artistic License – Biology: Even disregarding all the Art Major Biology, Murdoc refers to his pet raven with male pronouns but has made mention of it laying eggs — though perhaps it's just Murdoc's biology failure and not the creators; nobody ever said that captain Crazy Awesome there knows that much about birds.

Murdoc's older brother Hannibal's berserk button was apparently Murdoc using his (Hannibal's) record player without permission, as this was what earned Murdoc the second and third fractures of his nose.

Don't mention the Paula incident to 2D.

Beware the Nice Ones: Throughout Phase 3, we've seen the 2D is less cheerful and carefree when he isn't high on pain killers. In the iTunes session interview, he actually physically attacked Murdoc when he brought up the Paula Cracker incident, which he would have never done previously.

Big Bad: The Boogieman was this in Phase 3. Whether or not that's changed as of "DoYaThing" is currently unknown.

Bilingual Dialogue: One of the web shorts has Russel talking with Noodle, with Russel talking in English and Noodle in Japanese.

Bittersweet Ending: The story ends in "DoYaThing" with the band back together in London, sharing a house with each other. The Cyborg is gone, Noodle seems to finally be happy and peaceful again and the Boogieman seems to have turned over a new leaf and is now living with the band. However, Murdoc received no punishment for his deed during Phase 3, his relationship with 2D has remained terrible at best, Russel is still a giant, and they are currently being haunted by the spirit of Andre 3000. Made even more bittersweet by the ending, where 2D receives an eviction notice, meaning the band once again has nowhere to go, but is actually overjoyed by the news as it means he may finally be able to get away from the insanity Murdoc brought to him and live a normal life. That is, until another album is released.

Blah Blah Blah: The lyrics to "Rock It" constantly shift between actual lyrics and "Blah blah blah" as if they weren't even trying to write a song.

Bland-Name Product: The cover art for their first album features the group in a Geep, and we all know what kind of car that is supposed to be based on.

Brainless Beauty: Invoked purposefully with 2D, who is meant to be the archetypal stupid, pretty frontman.

Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: 2D once introduced himself on a radio interview by saying "Hi, my name's 2D, and I'm the singer, and I play the piano, and I need the toilet..." and Murdoc chose the middle of another interview as an appropriate time to claim that he lost his virginity at age nine.

Breaking the Fourth Wall: Murdoc shrugged off potential murder charges after using the island crash in "El Mañana" to kill his stalker on the grounds that "I'm a cartoon, mate. You'd have a hard time pinning anything on me. I don't even have fingerprints."

British Accents: Murdoc and 2D both have Cockney accents, with 2D's being a more classic example and Murdoc's being a mix between Cockney and the Midlands, reflecting the actual accents of their voice actors, Nelson De Freitas and Phil Cornwell.

Noodle's transmission (which appears as an epilogue in Rise of the Ogre), has her saying "Hello", and "Is anybody there?" several times. In their first album, the song "M 1 A 1" featured a sound bite from Day of the Dead that said the exact same lines, word for word.

From June 2010 onwards each member of the band — including Cyborg Noodle — has his/her own twitter page.

Character Development: Overtime the band change as people, for better or for worse. Murdoc continues to move further and further down the slope of anti-heroism and steadily loses his sanity along with it, 2D begins to realize how terrible his life actually is and becomes the Only Sane Man, Noodle goes from a hyper active kid to a mature, focused Super Soldier badass and Russel becomes progressively more withdrawn from reality.

Cerebus Syndrome: At the start, Gorillaz was more lighthearted; it had the funny Gorillabitez cartoons, 2D was far happier, Russel still had Del and the band generally seemed to be more at peace with each other. Then came Phase 2, which had Del taken away from Russel and "El Mañana"'s video in which Noodle was apparently KILLED. The following Phase 3 took things down an even darker route, having Murdoc make a pretty sinister robot version of Noodle and push the formerly cheerful 2D to the edge of his sanity by kidnapping him and treating him in the way that only a monster would.

Comically Small Bribe: The prize for the humiliating talent contest Murdoc's father made him perform in as a child was "£2.50 and the chance to humiliate yourself further in the biannual county finals".

Concept Album: More like a concept band. That being said, Plastic Beach is probably the most clear-cut example of a concept album in their discography.

Cut Short: Phase 3 was supposed to be a trilogy of albums with an epic plot featuring the apocalypse. Only one of these albums was released and the plot never really ended up going any where as a result.

Darker and Edgier: Just compare Phase 1 to Phase 2. Somehow made darker in Phase 3, what with the Cyborg Noodle, Murdoc, a 2D that seems to be on the edge of insanity, and a giant-sized Russel. And ironically, the music and the art style is brighter and slicker.

"DARE" and "El Mañana" feature Noodle, and Noodle only. The other three made cameos in "DARE"; Murdoc is the only one with lines and speaks only a sentence. Noodle says in an interview that the reason 2D and Russel were WTFing during the video is because she didn't warn any of them that she was going to record the clip.

Russel and Noodle both barely make any appearances during phase 3, and the video for Broken features just them and nothing else. The video is made entirely of footage of Noodle playing the melodica to the song while Russel holds her up for the camera.

"Rock The House", which included the band members but was focused on and sung completely by Del.

Music-wise, Gorillaz was almost entirely composed by Russel, Demon Days with Noodle, Plastic Beach with Murdoc and The Fall with 2D.

The Dead Can Dance: The "Clint Eastwood" video features the band — or at least Murdoc — being attacked by "Thriller"-dancing zombie apes.

Demoted to Extra: While 2D, Murdoc and Noodle all have fairly balanced screen time. Russel continues to fall into the background with each passing phase to the point where he barely does anything at all across Phase 3.

Fan: Have you picked up a nice boy with a pair of chopsticks yet? Noodle: That is very funny. Murdoc says that he can pick up boys with chopsticks but he has used his dictaphone. I do not understand this.

2D. As of Phase 3 he seems to have gotten a little bit smarter — at least to eloquently express how much he hates Murdoc, anyway. However, it could be that he is actually sober for once, unless Murdoc is giving him pain meds.

Pelican from Plastic Beach is like this even more than 2D, much to Seagull's chagrin.

The Dog Bites Back: After years of torment and harassment, 2D finally lashes out at Murdoc in the iTunes interview, which he would have never done before.

Donut Mess with a Cop: An incompetent cop shows up in the "Stylo" video, and naturally he has coffee and a box of donuts. He's even overtaken by the Boogieman while reaching for them.

Rise of the Ogre reveals that the band wasn't told about the 300-foot elk at the end of the "19-2000" video so they'd react to it authentically.

Noodle did know the island was going to be shot down in "El Mañana", but the stunt helicopters didn't show up; the ones depicted are actually trying to kill her, and everyone thought it was All Part of the Show until too late.

2D's and Russel's reactions during their brief appearances in the "DARE" music video are not acted. Noodle didn't tell anyone that she was going to record the video, so the other members were genuinely wondering what on earth was going on.

According to Murdoc, the "Stylo" video was not scripted and the car chase-scene was accidentally filmed by the camera crew that was following Murdoc at the time.

Epic Fail: In the short "Game Of Death", Murdoc loses a fighting game... to 2D.

Well, 2D is shown to be an avid gamer whereas Murdoc is relatively out of touch with technology.

Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Murdoc seemed genuinely distressed when finding out the real Noodle was under attack by pirates, and he immediately rushed to help her — it couldn't be simply for the sake of the album because he still had Cyborg Noodle.

The Lancer: 2D, due to his friendship with Murdoc and the fact that the two are polar opposites in personality; 2D is dim and sweet-natured, Murdoc is a scarily cunning psychopath.

The Big Guy: Russel looks the part (but he's closer to a Gentle Giant... as Del says in "Clint Eastwood," it's "not muscles but percussion he provides"), but Del fits much better, due to his bombastic Boisterous Bruiser personality.

The Smart Guy: Russel. He's much more level headed than most of the group, not to mention he does a lot of the composing for the band.

Gentle Giant: Russel. That moniker's more appropriate than ever since he became gigantic ingesting loads of polluted material on his way to Plastic Beach.

Giftedly Bad: Originally, Murdoc's singing voice was described as sounding like a strangled crow. He insisted in RoTO that "Technically, my voice is a lot better than 2D's." This, however, suffers from Flip Flop of God. In RoTO they also say that he sung the song "White Light", while closer to rapping than really singing, which wasn't an awful singing voice, and in his "Session Obsession" interview he sang along with a song and was pretty damn good. That said, Phil Cornwell (the voice of Murdoc) may have forgotten he wasn't supposed to sing well. Or, if you prefer an in-character explanation, maybe he just sounds worse if he's trying too hard. According to a recent Pirate Radio interview, he did the (heavily distorted) vocals on "Detroit".

Girl in a Box: Noodle, who was shipped to the other band members in a FedEx crate not long after they placed an ad for a new band member in the NME magazine. Gender-switched in 2D's ident.

Gory Discretion Shot: "On Melancholy Hill" has two. First when Real Noodle kills one of the pirates pilots we see some blood on the canopy of his plane but nothing else. Secondly, we see the jellyfish blood but we don't see them actually see them going through the propeller of one of the submersibles. Also averted when Cyborg Noodle pukes up a live octopus in the same video in close up.

The Grim Reaper: Appears to have it in for Russel, what with directly being involved in the gang shooting which killed Russel's friends and later removing Del's soul from him, for as-yet-unrevealed reasons. Also, judging from Murdoc's tweets regarding the "On Melancholy Hill" events, maybe the Boogieman.

The Heart: Noodle. The other three don't care much for each other — though, Russell and 2D get along a bit better with each other than Murdoc — but are willing to put up with each other for her sake. The band splits up after her apparent death in "El Mañana".

Homage: Does Damon Albarn have a copy of Krazy Kong by Wild Willy Barrett? "Don't Get Lost In Heaven" sounds a lot like "Return of Kong", what with the angelic backing harmony and the reggae-like rhythm. Put on top of this that Krazy Kong is about a monkey-like character who is a bit volatile.

Instant Home Delivery: Noodle's crate arrived seconds after Murdoc put the phone down after placing an ad for a guitarist.

The Invisible Band: Prior to 2006 — the actual humans behind the music never presented themselves as Gorillaz, and live shows concealed the performers by putting them in silhouette or behind a movie screen. Since the Demon Days Live performance, however, they've essentially dropped The Masquerade.

It's All About Me: Many of Murdoc's actions qualify him for this. He constantly refers to Gorillaz as "my band", he claims to own 2D and uses this as his excuse when he kidnaps him and keeps him against his will on Plastic Beach, and he actually wrote and released a song entitled "Murdoc Is God".

It Tastes Like Feet: Noodle once claimed in an interview that Murdoc smells "like halitosis on toast".

Among plenty of other things, Murdoc slaps one of the kids in the "Dirty Harry" video.

In the animatics for the "On Melancholy Hill" video, it seemed like taking the manatee was the Boogieman's intention all along. However, in the official video, he goes to leave without the manatee, then seems to reconsider and take the manatee with him just to be cruel!

Kids Rock: A school choir sings the refrain of "Dirty Harry": "I need a gun / to keep myself from harm." The kids seen in the "Dirty Harry" video are apparently based on the children from that choir.

"On Melancholy Hill" ends with an eerie bell chime that doesn't even remotely fit with the rest of the song.

There's also "M1A1", which has this trope in reverse — up until about 1:40, it's a clip from Day of the Dead that features a man shouting "Hello?! Is anyone there?!" and getting more and more desperate as time goes on... but then the song turns much more upbeat. You could turn M1A1 into a stereotypical Last Note Nightmare by putting it in reverse, but then you have Whole Song Nightmare...

Let's Meet the Meat: The jellyfishes' gormlessly happy expressions in the "Superfast Jellyfish" video give a distinct impression of this. Even more disturbingly, they still appear to be alive and sentient even after being microwaved and therefore appear to have been eaten alive.

Like a Badass out of Hell: Noodle, but we don't yet know what really happened to her or whether she even went to Hell in the first place. This being Noodle, though, it's well within the realm of possibility.

Murdoc: I'm speaking metaphorically, D. I'm using the analogy of the chimney flue to describe the, um, passageways of our flowing creativity. The zombies, in this case, are used as a metaphor for blockages to the airways, figuratively speaking. 2D: Really? Murdoc: No. There really are about six undead carcasses stuck up the studio chimney.

Literary Agent Hypothesis: Rise of the Ogre maintains that Damon and Jamie are the band's mentor/producer and video director, respectively.

An example would be "Superfast Jellyfish"; it's a happy, bouncy tune while its lyrics are about how we're overfishing till the point there is nothing living left in the sea. It could also be seen as a metaphor for the modern music industry, with people demanding entertainment "just in time for breakfast" and disregarding quality. Depending on how you interpret it, "Superfast Jellyfish" is either an environmentalist ballad or a scathing criticism of pop culture. Either way, it's pretty eerie.

"To Binge" seems like a happy, beachy song, but is actually a pretty heartbreaking song about being in love with a drug addict. Once you find this out, listening it is suddenly much more depressing.

Madness Mantra: 2D's lyrics in "Stylo" qualify as this, considering he had been kidnapped by Murdoc and had his life uprooted by "this guy who just won't leave him alone", the whole Noodle situation, and singing it all while he was in the middle of a car chase that could have killed him. "Overload, overload, overload, comin' up to the..." And repeat.

I'm a scary gargoyle on a tower That you made with plastic power Your Rhinestone Eyes are like, factories far away With the paralytic dreams that we all seem to keep Drive on engines till they weep with Future pixels in factories far away.

Medium Awareness: It seems to vary as to whether the characters are aware that they're cartoons.

The puppet version of Murdoc is very much aware of the fact that he's a puppet, and that his voice was recorded by an actor weeks in advance.

Medium Blending: The videos, the website and other related artwork fuse together cartoon drawings, CGI and real footage.

Mondegreen: How "DARE" came about. The lyric was originally supposed to be "It's there", but Shaun Ryder kept pronouncing it like "It's dare", so they decided to make that the name of the song instead.

When 2D starts singing in "Fire Coming Out of the Monkey's Head", it transitions from a nice fairy tale to a song where people are dying due to greed, though said message ultimately parallels what happens in the fairy tale.

On the Self-Titled Album, the clanging, ominous "Man Research (Clapper)" is followed by the frenzied and upbeat "Punk", which in turn leads into the slow-building, dub "Sound Check (Gravity)".

Morality Chain / Morality Pet: Noodle to Murdoc, arguably the only thing keeping Murdoc from lapsing into a monster. Confirmed by his rapid moral decline after the events of "El Mañana", and the panicked tone of his Twitter posts upon discovering she's alive and in trouble.

Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Murdoc received a baccalaureate in Anti-Social Anthropology from Sodsworth Comprehensive school in his youth and took an open university course during his stay in Mexico, earning him a degree in "Amateur Administration of Pharmaceutical Medicine" and the title Doctor Niccals — "legally entitled to experiment on monkeys", apparently. See Mad Scientist above.

Mr. Fanservice: Deliberately invoked with 2D. His original bio included the words "Voice like an angel, arse like a satsuma." Murdoc even admits this is why he picked 2D to join the band in Rise of the Ogre. "Girls would go crazy for his looks!" From the iTunes Sessions:

Murdoc: What an image. Tall, pretty, blue, spiky hair... 2D:No eyeballs...Murdoc: No eyeballs... I knew that he had to be the frontman.

2D: I know there's a rumour going round that my real name is Stuart Tusspot, but that's not true. It's Pot. Stuart Pot.

Apparently only half-true; it was "Tusspot" when he was very young, but his father decided he didn't want Stuart to suffer the same teasing he did, so he changed the family name to "Pot" to head it off at the pass somewhat.

New Sound Album: All of them, really: Gorillaz laid the foundation of the band's sound, Demon Days introduced a darker, more theatrical version of that, Plastic Beach took that and added a tropical vibe (along with over a dozen guest artists), and The Fall... somehow managed to be even more of a departure than the others, going in a completely new direction and incorporating elements of ambient, blues, and chillwave.

Nice Guy: 2D is one of the sweetest guys imaginable, too bad he spends all of his time with Murdoc.

Nice Hat: Murdoc and 2D both have a collection, Russel has his fez, and Cyborg Noodle has her hat.

No Name Given: Noodle, who was named as such because it was the first thing she said to the other characters when she met them; it was the only English word she knew or could remember at the time.

Non-Appearing Title: "Clint Eastwood" (its name is derived from a recurring sample from the theme of The Good The Bad And The Ugly), "Feel Good Inc." (though the phrase "feel good" does appear), "Empire Ants" (thought the word "empire" appears), "Every Planet We Reach Is Dead", "Fire Coming Out of a Monkey's Head" (though that phrase does appear on the very next song on the album. "Don't Get Lost in Heaven", "Dirty Harry" (named such because of the references to gun violence in the song, as well as because Clint Eastwood played Dirty Harry in the titular film), "19-2000", and "Slow Country" (though it comes close).

Nonstandard Game Over: In the interactive DVD Celebrity Take Down, an investigator is given the option of going into different rooms in Kong Studios, once there, he has a limited time to examine, if he stays for to long, an automatic cutscene is activated offhandedly disposing the intruder. It isn't pretty.

Essentially the entirety of Phase 3 past the initial part is one of these due to it getting cut short. What was clearly an elaborate plot was half-explained by Murdoc, but then immediately proven false when the video for "Do Ya Thing" contradicts several of the explanations he gives.

Noodle People: To at least some extent, 2D, Murdoc and, appropriately, Noodle. Averted with Russel, who is comparatively short and fat.

Not Allowed to Grow Up: Averted; the characters age in real time. Noodle is visibly older, Russel has grown and then shaved off a beard, and Murdoc's hair has started to turn grey and he's gained a noticeable beer gut. 2D has also gained a more lined texture to his face, though these may be stress lines considering Phase 3.

Oh, Crap: The reaction of Murdoc, 2D and Noodle in the "Stylo" video upon the realisation that they are being chased by Bruce Willis. And gets worse when they see the Hand Cannon Bruce has in hand.

Old Shame: In-universe; in Rise of the Ogre the characters reveal that they're very unhappy that they included "Rock the House" on their debut album, feeling that it doesn't fit their style at all, and are even more unhappy that they chose it for one of Phase 1's singles/videos at the urging of their label.

Murdoc's lair. On the screens you can see video feed from rooms you've already been in, as well as a broken Vista screen, Murdoc's Website/Facebook page, the Matrix, a view of Kong Studios, and a corpse from the bunker.

Only Sane Man: Switches with each Phase, mostly because the band falls more and more apart after each one. In Phase 1, Russel was the most calm and reasonable bandmate, but the loss of his literal soul brother between Phases causes him to breakdown, forcing the now matured Noodle to take on the role. By Phase 3, both Russel and Noodle are absent, forcing 2D to take up the role by simply being slightly less insane than Murdoc.

Organ Theft: Murdoc had most of his internal organs surgically swapped for 2D's.

Your travel down the stairs to Murdoc's secret lair in the Plastic Beach online adventure game. It takes a good four to five minutes of unskippable spiral staircase animation to get there the first time through. At least you opt to have an entertaining conversation with Murdoc while you gallivant your way to him.

Murdoc: You can't have a secret lair and pop it right next to the door, can you? People would hear your secret chair scraping around on your secret floor, now wouldn't they?

Strangely enough, it doesn't take any time at all to make the trip back up... But M. C. Escher apparently designed the stairs, so who knows.

There's also the bathroom gag in their MTV cribs, which is almost a minute of watching Murdoc pee.

Overshadowed by Awesome: "Broken" was the best received of the Plastic Beach demos, but when the album was released the fans gravitated to "Rhinestone Eyes" and "Empire Ants" and the singles chosen were "Stylo", "Superfast Jellyfish", and "On Melancholy Hill". "Broken" doesn't really get a look-in anymore, despite being an improvement on the demo.

Papa Wolf: It's easy to imagine Russel being this as far as Noodle is concerned, especially since he's already said that he'd do anything to protect her.

Percussive Maintenance: Dave, the repairman Murdoc has on Plastic Beach, insists on "repairing" the wires in the basement with a frying pan. Justified, as he's not actually trying to fix anything; he just wants to extend the job for as long as possible so he'll keep getting paid.

Pet the Dog: Murdoc has his moments. Attempting to save the manatee in the "On Melancholy Hill" video comes to mind, as does the way he apparently panicked and rushed to save the real Noodle, according to his Twitter page. But then he segues into Kick the 2D immediately...

Police Are Useless: Murdoc isn't exactly subtle about his illegal activities, but he's only suffered legal consequences on two occasions (the ram-raid, and the brothel incident in Mexico), and nobody's managed to rescue 2D yet.

Punny Name: 2D is so named because of the two dents in his head, but being a cartoon character he is in fact 2D. His real name is Stuart Pot, which he shortened to Stu-Pot. Stu-Pot could also be a pun of stupid, which 2D is.

Putting the Band Back Together: Whether they like it or not. Although the band effectively broke up after "El Mañana", Murdoc is so determined to produce the Plastic Beach album that he kidnapped 2D and built a cyborg replacement for Noodle, made partially from the real Noodle's DNA, for that purpose. Russel, whose whereabouts were unknown at the time, was replaced by a drum machine.

Revolving Door Band: This example isn't referring to the animated band; it is referring to the fact that Damon Albarn is the only man to consistently provide the music for Gorillaz. But when the band is fictional and is run behind-the-scenes by real people, this kinda thing is to be expected.

Many of the illustrations in Rise of the Ogre feature the members drawn into photographs with real humans and are shown interacting with them.

The Free Tibet G-Bite has 2D sitting with live humans on the doorstep of the Chinese embassy.

Sampling: An interesting example as the sample in question doesn't come from a song. The clip heard at the beginning of "Superfast Jellyfish" (along with the sound bite of a man going "Are you kidding?") comes from an old 1980s commercial for "Swanson Great Start Frozen Breakfast Sandwiches", which can be seen right here.

Sanity Slippage: Quite evident with Murdoc in Phase 3. Justlistentohim in the radio hijacks. Though for now, it's hard to tell if he's really cracked or if the rum's just gotten to his head. 2D has also undergone something of a slippage.

A verse in "Slow Country". Murdoc complains about this in Rise of the Ogre:

Murdoc: It was a pretty good song till you started with all that muppets "manamana" crap. 2D: I was just singing along. I didn't know the mic was still on.

It's not really audible in the full song, but if you listen to the vocal multitrack for "Dirty Harry", you can hear to 2D singing "BOW-ba BOW ba-da-da-da-da-da" to the melody of the instrumental part after the first verse.

Something Completely Different: "Sound Check", "Punk", "Fire Coming Out of a Monkey's Head", and "Glitter Freeze" are all very different from the sort of music that Gorillaz usually make (though even their more "normal" songs have a good degree of Genre Bending and experimentation, so it's not that jarring).

Taxidermy Is Creepy: Russel has taxidermy as a a hobby. Specifically, sewing different animal parts together. Even Murdoc finds the results unsettling.

Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Noodle was made a bit more feminine for Demon Days, as she ages in real-time and went from ten to fourteen between albums. By Phase 3, both Noodle and the Cyborg are much more femininely shaped, and Noodle wears a dress and lipstick.

Unfazed Everyman: Despite being in a band with psychotic and super powered bandmates and living in a generally awful world filled with demons, zombies and other horrors, 2D reacts to most situations by... doing absolutely nothing, really. Justified in that he's really that stupid. Best shown in the Clint Eastwood video where, after Russel channels a ghost who then raises an army of undead gorillas to attack his bandmates, 2D barely reacts to them at all.

Slowly removed from his character over time, to the point where he's all too aware of how terrible his world is by Phase 3.

Unfortunate Names: 2D's real name is Stuart Pot — hence his nickname "Stu-Pot". Apparently the family name was originally Tusspot, but a lifetime of mockery prompted his father to have it legally changed shortly after Stuart's birth.

Unreliable Narrator: Murdoc continuously changes his story involving his role in the "El Mañana" conspiracy and the fates of Noodle and himself post-Demon Days, which is just further fuel for the Wild Mass Guessing that he's full of fecal matter on the topic.

Up to Eleven: Murdoc once bragged that he took the speakers up to thirteen for a concert.

Verbal Tic Name: Noodle was named after the only English word she knew when the guys first met her.

Villainous Crossdresser: Murdoc has mentioned disguising himself as a woman a couple of times on his Twitter page, though we have yet to see any pics of same.

Villain Protagonist: Murdoc, to an extent. His actions are most certainly not moral and completed exclusively for his profit.

Villain Song: "Sweepstakes", if the Boogieman is as bad as Mos Def's interviews make him out to be.

Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: 2D has a morbid fear of whales. Murdoc found this out and used it against him. In the animatics of the video for "Rhinestone Eyes", the whale finally does try to kill 2D. Russel takes care of it for him.

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